It all started with this commercial:

Except instead of planning to eat more jelly beans for my personal “revolution” all I could think about was this:

Yes. It’s that time of year… but I’m not making any New Year’s Resolutions. I’ve written about some of the plans I’ve chosen for my personal, professional and spiritual growth. None of them are exactly earth-shattering. They are more about living my faith out consistently, day after day. I wouldn’t say I am trying to live in a way that is revolutionary. I’m just trying to live in a way that changes how I impact the people I care for as a chaplain and a pastor. I want to know that, at the end of the day, I’ve given my best, not think, “Meh. I did stuff.”

It started with the Daily Office readings today where I read these words in Isaiah 62:

Go through, go through the gates;
prepare the way for the people;
build up, build up the highway;
clear it of stones;
lift up a signal over the peoples.

I think I’ve been over-thinking or over-reaching this. It’s not rocket science. It’s a simple, get-off-the-couch, go-clear-theway sort of attitude. To start clearing the rocks that are in the way!

It’s a kind of reboot or restart. The problem is, it’s too easy for me to make excuses or get busy doing something that’s more… comfortable or entertaining or flashy. Picking up rocks? It’s so mundane. So simple. So… hard when it’s been simpler to just let things lie. As my friend Jan Fox says, I need “a revolt to get the jolt!”

Here’s to making the first step today!